After much (justified) complaining about Sony's appalling price point for the XLR boom microphone module designed for their new multi interface shoe on the NEX-VG900 and NEX-6, CES has revealed a fine alternative, and pre-orders are being taken now for a mid-March 2013 delivery date:

See the above picture for its combination with the NEX-6. It even includes a high-quality "dead cat" windscreen, along with a storage bag and cable for independent audio output.

This is a huge win for the NEX-6. I had been edging toward upgrading my NEX-5 to the NEX-5r so that I could keep using my ECM-SST1 which is incompatible with the NEX-6, but the "compact stereo microphone" always had poor audio quality, with a bad signal-to-noise ratio, while this new ECM-XYST1M seems sure to outperform its predecessor.

Note that Sony has also announced an LED and IR light that mounts on, but is NOT powered from, the new multi interface shoe as well: